If you only have a short time to spend in Copenhagen and you want to get a beautiful but affordable overview of the city, you have to take a canal tour with Strömma.  We aren’t really city folk.  We usually like to explore the countryside when we visit new places, but Copenhagen really charmed our socks off.  It was such a dazzling city. Read on to find out about our canal tour through this wonderfully diverse city that we just couldn’t get enough of.  

We only spent two days in the city, but wanted to get the most bang for our buck (or Danish Krone), so we decided to do a canal tour.  Copenhagen is full of a rich history and stunning sites that you really want to experience.  I know when I am traveling I like to spend my time in the countryside.  I’m not really into big cities.  They are often overwhelming and busy.  Copenhagen is a very different big city though.  It’s definitely worth staying a few days and exploring what it has to offer, but if you don’t have a lot of time, the Strömma canal tour is a way to see the highlights in a short amount of time.  Let me walk you through the process.

Booking

You can book a tour online at https://www.stromma.dk/en/copenhagen/.  We decided on the Grand Tour of Copenhagen by boat and we booked it online with no problem at all. You can book the day you would like to tour online and they have hourly departures for the tour, so you can just show up on the day you are scheduled and go on the tour that is at the most convenient time for you.  They also offer a selection of different tour options like bus sightseeing tours, castle tours, and walking tours.  I printed up our confirmation and brought it on our trip.

Parking

We had rented a car to drive around the country and were staying in Glostrup, which is a 20 minute drive from the city, so we decided to drive in and find a parking lot.  We were told that you shouldn’t drive into the city and that parking is very limited, but we actually found a spot that was about a 10 minute walk to the boat stop. There was more traffic from the bikes than there was from the cars.  It was so fun seeing all the locals out on their bikes enjoying their weekend.  People of all ages bike, from toddlers to the elderly.  People bike while eating a bite and texting on their cell phones.  We are talking everyone in Denmark is a full-on professional bike rider.  Anyway, parking is on the pricier side.  We paid 132.70 DKK (about 20 USD) and we only parked for about 4 hours. However, since we are not the greatest bike riders, we were probably much safer in our vehicle. 😉

Checking In

We got a little confused when we were looking for the check-in booth for the boat tour.  (Not being able to read Danish didn’t help.)  The ticket booth is listed as an attraction booth with a different company name, but one of the flags was a Strömma flag, so I checked and they said we were in the right place.  While you’re checking in, make sure you look over into the canal.  There are some really cool underwater statues that you can see from above.  It is pretty mesmerizing.  We waited a few minutes by the dock and they let us board the boat.

Boarding

Boarding was a fairly easy process.  They let us board about 30 minutes before the boat was  scheduled to depart, so we were able to sit on the boat and take in the beauty of the architecture and water before we even left.  It was also nice to arrange our large party (there were 9 of us) into a good formation so that we could all see the sights.

The Tour

Now for our favorite part of the trip: the tour itself.  We departed from Gammel Strand and took a one hour tour around the city.  Our driver was names Lars and our multilingual tour guide was named Luca.  They were both equally impressive.  Lars was going in and out of small places with this huge boat, and did it with ease.  Luca spoke in French, German, Danish, and English, and switched between them seamlessly.  On some tours they will offer even more language options like Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.  The tour is always done in Danish and English, and they will add in a 3rd or 4th language to the mix depending on their passengers.  At first, I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, but it did work.  I didn’t feel like I missed anything because Lars was so well spoken.  See below for the highlights of what we saw on the tour.

As you can see, this was fun for the whole family.  We really enjoyed our time out on the boat and highly recommend the tour.  We got a unique perspective of many popular sights in the city, all for a low price and an hour of time.  Don’t miss it when you are in Copenhagen!

* My family and I were invited as guests of Strömma, but as always, all opinions are my own.  

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